After re-reading east german track and field by schmolinsky guide it states that the jumper you should not take off like a sprinter to maintain spring in his legs? And the runup should be about 40 meters. Also It talks about a 72% departure angle. And it adds that you want to maintain the speed you have built up at the board. But how would you do this if you have to alter you stride the last couple steps to be more upright rather then leaning. And why not take off at full-speed from the start of the longjump? Doesnt it take 40m just to hit topspeed anyways?
Tim,you want smooth acceleration approaching the board but with top speed gained.the last 3-4 steps before hitting the board will always be cut.the athlete will try to maintain the speed but also will want to propel off the board with max height and speed in mind.
take a look at carl lewis,mike powell,pedroso-they all cut the SL in order to set up for the task ahead.and also notice that the hips will drop and angle in the knee will increase to order to gain the required propulsion during the last 3-4 steps before planting on the board
you can actually hear a good long jump takeoff pretty distinctly, it will be normal strides untill the last two, where the long jumper’s feet get flat footed, lowering the hips to jump. they will make a quick SMACK SMACK sound. a good takeoff more than compensates for the slight loss of speed.
in my opinion many people don’t really understand the long jump approach… the goal is not to get to the board the fastest, it is to be the fastest at the board. A lot of high school athletes i have worked with seem to think that in order to hit top speed in 16-18 strides, they need to get their turnover going as fast as possible right at the start of the approach. Instead, i think they should focus on getting a strong drive, being patient with each step, and staying relaxed. Many athletes are surprised at how much they speed they can generate in as little as 10 steps if they focus more on a strong push instead of fast turnover.
i agree with 123 for the run up. full driving strides are more efficient than the choppy, high turnover strides seen in many young jumpers. carrying this same thought closer to the board, the 4th and 3rd stride out should be complete sprinting strides, however the recovery may/will be lower. the loud sounds you may hear on TV and at meets is partially due to the different materials used to construct the boards, some being aluminum. so if your boards are solid wood, don’t try so much for the loud sound (because this often leads to reaching). instead, video the takeoffs and look where the takeoff foot is striking w/respect to the hips (accepting 4-7 inches in front). when you get good enough at seeing this you won’t need to video as much.
i also agree with watching video of the great jumpers. try to include some of today’s jumpers too such as stringfellow and davis (some coaching styles have changed)
The idea that the foot should be stamped down on takeoff inorder to accentuate the reaction forces in the long jump is a misunderstanding of Newtons third. The reaction force that occurs during takeoff occurs at the exact instant that the force is applied. Thus a stamping or accentuated ground force would increase breaking and cause forces to peak prior to toe off.
Ground forces follow a sequence that peaks on toe off, in the long jump and sprinting a conscious attempt to increase ground forces disrupts the proper sequence of forces.
k correct me if I’m wrong Sharmer, I don’t think I clarified my post well. I didn’t mean to exert any extra force into the board, but that by flattening your last two steps and lowering your hips you are better prepared for takeoff. I believe the two schools of thought are to lower the hips by lengthening the last two strides, or by shortening them. I was describing using the method of shortening them.
The stride prior to take off undergoes changes that cannot be classified as either short-long or long- short. In the litreture its reported that in the last three strides adopt a short-long-short method , e.g
Stride 3- 2.47m, Short
Stride 2-2.67m, Long
Stride 1 2.13m, Short
Misguided as you can observe the stride patterns during the last 3 steps are varied and even more so during the last 6 strides.
Therefore a conscious attempt into controlling stride variables prior to takeoff will disrupt acceleration patterns & reaction forces.
In order to have control of run up speed on takeoff, rhythm and timing are the key elements.
Have you ever noted that sometimes, when an longjumper has an “unfinished” jump just landing running into the pit, it often looks more potential than the actual result in a “finished” jump. I wonder how many pr:s in longjump are made this way, almost by “accident”?
this is because they are more relaxed when they realise their steps are off and they kind of give up…in actual competition most jumpers are tensed up instead of acting relaxed.
when i jump relaxed in LJ i feel i jump much further. i try not to worry to much about the setup with the penultimate stride and everything…at my level i should just focus on a good acceleration down the runway and good force into the takeoff with good blocking.